To Lafcadio Hearn at the turn of the twentieth century, Japan's most priceless objets d'art were not the delicate masterpieces of its fine arts but its women. Today, the women of Japan are viewed with a mixture of old stereotypes and new misconceptions. The Mother of Dreams is an anthology of modern Japanese fiction portraying Japanese women, arranged according to five categories: the maiden, the mistress, the wife, the mother, and the working woman.
These short stories span a period that has seen great changes in the status of Japanese women. There has also